Customer Success and Expansion

"Churn is not an event. It is a lagging indicator of a failed execution."

In proprietary SaaS, Customer Success (CS) is often a glorified support function—resetting passwords and teaching users where the buttons are. In COSS, the user already knows where the buttons are. They have been using the software for six months before they bought it.

Therefore, the role of CS shifts from "Onboarding" to "Production Hardening."

The user did not buy your Enterprise edition to learn how to use the software. They bought it to survive scale. They bought it for the non-functional requirements: Security, Reliability, and Compliance.

Your CS team is not a "Happiness Team." They are Reliability Engineers.

The Shift: From "Onboarding" to "Production Hardening"

When a customer converts from Community to Enterprise, the "Onboarding" phase is actually a "Migration" phase. They are moving from a loose, developer-configured environment to a locked-down, compliant production environment.

The CS mandate is to audit the existing mess and sanitize it.

The "Production Readiness Audit": Instead of a generic "Welcome Webinar," the first engagement is a technical audit. The CS Architect reviews the customer's existing open-source implementation against the "Golden Path" standards.

• Are they using the correct replication factor?

• Are backups automated?

• Is TLS encryption enabled between nodes?

This positions CS as a high-value technical partner immediately.

The Tactic: Telemetry-Driven Health Scores

In Draft 1, we discussed "Health Scores" based on login frequency and support tickets. In COSS, we rely on the Telemetry Mandate (Chapter 1) to build a deterministic Health Score.

Subjective Health (Bad): "The customer seems happy on the monthly call." Objective Health (Good): "Telemetry shows Cluster #402 is running Version 1.2 (Legacy), has 90% disk utilization, and has disabled audit logging."

Trigger: The "Security Audit" Outreach

Use telemetry to drive proactive value.

Scenario: Your dashboard shows a customer is three versions behind (Version Lag).

• Old Play: Send a generic "Please Upgrade" email.

• COSS Play: The CS Manager reaches out with a "Security Advisory.

"Hi Dave, our telemetry indicates you are running v1.2. This version has a known vulnerability (CVE-2024-XYZ). As an Enterprise customer, you are entitled to our 'Zero-Downtime Upgrade' service. Can we schedule a 15-minute slot to walk you through the patch?"

This turns a maintenance chore into a value-add touchpoint. It reinforces why they pay you.

The Goal: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) via "Shadow Usage"

The expansion game in COSS is unique because usage often expands outside the contract. This is "Shadow Usage"—teams in other departments downloading the free version without talking to IT.

In proprietary software, Shadow IT is a compliance nightmare. In COSS, Shadow IT is your sales pipeline.

The "Domain Recon" Play: Your telemetry (via Scarf or LFX) tracks downloads by corporate domain.

• Signal: You have a contract with the "Platform Team" at JPMorgan for 50 nodes. But Scarf shows downloads from IPs associated with the "Consumer Banking" division at JPMorgan.

• The Play: Your CS rep takes this data to your Champion in the Platform Team.

"Hey, we see significant usage coming from the Consumer Banking division. They are currently running unsupported community versions. This is a governance risk for the bank. Let's fold them into your Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). We can give you a volume discount if we consolidate them."

You are turning your Champion into a hero who solves a governance risk, while simultaneously expanding your NRR. You are not selling "more seats"; you are selling "governance consolidation."

Strategic Directive: Your CS team exists to close the gap between how the software can be used and how it is being used. Telemetry is the flashlight that reveals that gap.